SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won had lunch with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who is visiting Korea, and discussed the development of the artificial intelligence (AI) industry and ways for the two companies to cooperate.
According to business sources on the 31st, Chairman Chey had lunch with CEO Altman that day at SK Seorin Building in Jongno District, Seoul. Senior executives from SK Hynix and SK Telecom were also reportedly in attendance.
The business community is watching for the possibility that the two sides discussed cooperation in AI infrastructure, including AI semiconductors and data centers. While details of the conversation were not disclosed, they are believed to have exchanged views on existing cooperative projects, including HBM supply and the construction of AI data centers in Korea.
SK Group and OpenAI signed a strategic partnership last October to build global AI infrastructure. At the time, the two companies laid the groundwork for cooperation by signing a letter of intent (LOI) for memory semiconductor supplies and a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on cooperation in AI data centers.
SK Group agreed to participate as a key partner in OpenAI’s Stargate Project, an ultra-large-scale AI infrastructure development project. SK Hynix said at the time that it planned to establish production capacity to respond to requests for HBM supplies equivalent to up to 900,000 DRAM wafers per month.
SK Telecom agreed to pursue the joint construction of an AI data center in the Southwest region with OpenAI, and to work together on identifying AI use cases for businesses and consumers and developing next-generation data center technologies.
Chairman Chey and CEO Altman have continued to engage with each other on AI infrastructure since then. They also met at the AI Summit held in San Francisco, U.S., in July this year, where they reportedly discussed the direction of their long-term cooperation.
Meanwhile, CEO Altman also met with the presidents of major Samsung Group affiliates that day to discuss future management strategies for the AI era. With around 50 presidents from Samsung Electronics and other major affiliates in the electronics, finance and biotech sectors in attendance, they exchanged views on changes in the AI industry and business opportunities.
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